Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Recent events have put the focus of the nation on Wall Street and the financial district in New York. These aerial views of Wall Street are from the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection and Atlas Collection in Ball State University Libraries. The first map, Downtown Manhattan: An Axonometric View of the Big Apple, shows a view of the financial district from 1994. The base of the former World Trade Center is shown in the top left corner of the map. The second view is from the New York Photo Atlas from 2004 in the Atlas Collection. The World Trade Center site can be clearly viewed in the top left corner. (Click on the images for a larger view).

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer. Atlases circulate for 28 days. For more information about these maps and atlases, please contact the staff of the GRMC at 765/285-1097.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Cartographic Guides Available from the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection

Students and other researchers of religious studies can now use a subject guide on the GRMC Web page to access the cartographic resources available in University Libraries. The subject guide, Cartographic Resources for Religious Studies, is available at http://www.bsu.edu/library/article/0,,59405--,00.html.

Another subject guide, Anthropology and Archaeology Cartographic Resources in University Libraries, was also added to the Web page to assist researchers in those fields of study.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Hispanic Heritage Month Map Exhibit in Ball State University LibrariesSeptember 15th marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States. Seven Latin American countries declared their independence during the month of September, and Columbus Day also falls within this period of celebration. A special map exhibit commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month is currently on display in the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library. The exhibit features maps and images from the Atlas of Hispanic-American History available in the Atlas Collection.

For more information, please contact the staff of the GRMC at 765/285-1097.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Special Map Exhibit for September 11 MemorialAn exhibit in Ball State University Libraries marks the seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The “Maps in the News” section of the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection on the second floor features maps from the New York Times and Time magazine from September of 2001 showing the flight paths of the planes involved in the attacks and a map of the World Trade Center site in New York. A recent aerial image of Ground Zero (shown above) from the New York Photo Atlas available in the Atlas Collection is also featured in the exhibit.

Online Guide to Political Cartographic Resources in University Libraries

The presidential election is less than two months from today. Maps are an ideal tool for illustrating various information and statistics about elections. The widely-used "blue states and red states" explanation of states' party affiliations has become a cultural phrase and was made popular from an election map used during the 2000 Presidential election. Voters may find maps and other cartographic resources informative and helpful in making their election selections.

Now voters and other politicos can access an online subject guide for cartographic resources for political science and election research on the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection Web page. Cartographic Resources for Political Science and Elections Research in Ball State University Libraries lists the many maps, atlases, and other cartographic resources available throughout many departments of the Library. The guide is available on the “Subject Guides “ page at http://www.bsu.edu/library/article/0,,59405--,00.html.

The Geospatial Resources & Map Collection houses many maps and atlases about elections--both current and historical. Maps depicting newly-drawn Congressional districts, presidential election results since 1789, and even local city council districts are available in the GRMC. U.S. Census data is also available in the GIS lab of the GRMC.

The Atlas Collection also provides excellent election resources. The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections, Student Atlas of World Politics, Atlas of African-American History and Politics, and The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress are very current and thorough sources of information. Atlas of American Politics 1960-2000 features several maps about elections: Voter Turnout; Democratic Campaign Stops, 2000; Republican Campaign Stops, 2000; Party Affiliation in the House of Representatives. But the atlas also contains more specific political maps: Senate Vote to Convict or Acquit President Clinton on Impeachment; Cabinet Secretaries' Home States; Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Votes; Women in State Legislatures. And this atlas also features maps describing issues important to voters: Per Capita Hazardous Waste Generation; Methods of Capital Punishment in Each State; Violent Crime Rate; Teacher Salaries; Abortion Rates; Firearm Injury Death Rate. There are even rare atlases covering the first elections in Kosovo and elections in Poland.

The General Collection includes many books and other atlases related to elections and voter issues, including Wealth Beyond Measure: An Atlas of New Economics and Gaia Atlas of Green Economics. Government Publications on the first floor of Bracken Library includes many statistical books, reports, and atlases about the elections, including Atlas of Foreign Relations and Census Atlas of the United States. Atlases in the Reference Collection also provide election information, including Atlas of Contemporary America: Portrait of a Nation—Politics, Economy, Environment, Ethnic and Religious Diversity, Health Issues, Demographic Patterns, Quality of Life, Crime, Personal Freedoms.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

A new collection of maps has been added to the Ball State University Libraries Digital Media Repository at http://libx.bsu.edu/: Ball State University Campus Maps. The Ball State Campus Maps collection contains maps of the Muncie, Indiana, campus dating from 1929-2000. These maps provide an excellent resource for exploring the expansion of the campus over the last century.

The Collection includes maps from the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection (GRMC) and the Archives and Special Collections. Maps from the GRMC are available for regular circulation. Users can determine a map’s availability by using the link to University Libraries online card catalog, CardCat, by using the link in the document description view, “locate this file in CardCat.” More maps of the Ball State University campus are available in the GRMC.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

New GIS Tutorial Available on GRMC Web PageInterested in adding Google maps to a Web page? A new online tutorial on the Geospatial Resources & Map Collection Web page provides step-by-step information about the process. The online tutorial, Adding Google Maps to Your Web Page, is now available under the “Online GRMC GIS Tutorials” section of the GRMC Web page at http://www.bsu.edu/library/collections/gcmc/.

Other GIS tutorials available on the page include Census Data: Downloading and Using in ArcMap, Creating and Editing Shapefiles in ArcMap, Creating KML Files for Google Earth, Downloading Data and Creating a Layout, GIS for Journalism and Media, GIS Introduction, and Using BusinessMAP 4.5.

For more information about these tutorials, please contact the GRMC between Monday through Friday at 765/285-1097.

Track Hurricanes Using Online MappingGoogle has coordinated several mapping resources on its Web page to “enable all Americans to keep up-to-date” on the progress of hurricanes. A very useful map resource on the page is listed as “Atlantic Ocean—Hurricane Path Tracking and Storm Status Information.” Clicking on the link accesses this site: http://stormadvisory.org/map/atlantic.

Users can click on the plus sign by the name of the storm or multiple storms to see the possible path near the United States. All the storms of 2008 can also be tracked, showing the status as a tropical depression, tropical storm, and the level of hurricane each storm reaches.